+1 #136: Your Genius Zone

Gay Hendricks tells us that we need to make a big leap into our Genius Zone.

He tells us that we can play in one of four domains.

Draw a little box with four squares to see it visually.

In the bottom right, drop in “Incompetence.” This is for stuff that you just aren't good at. And you probably don't like.

In the bottom left we have “Competence.” This is for stuff you're decent at but not really they good at and you're not really fired up about.

On the upper right we have “Excellence.” This box is for the stuff you pretty much crush. The world rewards you for this stuff and pays you nicely for hammering it as well.

But that “Excellence Zone” box is actually our most challenging because it's easy to get a little too comfortable there and not be willing to explore the box in the upper left: Your “Genius Zone.”

Your Genius Zone? That's the box that captures who we are and what we're doing when we’re at our ABSOLUTE best. Doing stuff that we and only we can do.

Gay tells us we need to make the “big leap” from our excellence to our genius zones—which is basically an echo of Campbell’s wisdom that we need to make the leap over the chasm from our normal lives to our heroic lives.

Ready for it?

Today’s +1: Use the worksheet or whip out a piece of paper and fill in those four squares.

Where do you spend most of your time?

How can you spend a little more in your Genius Zone today? (And tomorrow and…)

+1. +1. +1.

P.S. Leaders (yes, that's you and all of us!): Your primary job is to help people discover their genius zones and then create the structures (in your businesses / classrooms / family / etc) such that each individual can spend as much time as possible rocking their genius. You doing that?